THIS WEEKEND There
was no peace or harmony at the box office over the Dr. Martin Luther King
Jr. holiday weekend as The Weinstein Company and Disney fought each other
for the coveted number one spot with new PG-rated releases aimed at broad
family audiences. The former Miramax heads unleashed their first animated
film Hoodwinked, but were edged out
by the Mouse House's debut of the inspirational sports drama Glory
Road which claimed first place.

Winning the four-day weekend at the buzzer with $16.9M, according to
final studio figures, from 2,222 theaters
was Disney's college basketball flick Glory Road.
The story of the real-life coach who recruited mostly black players to
his squad in 1965 averaged a strong $7,618 over four days. Glory
was tops among all films on Friday, but was beaten out by Hoodwinked
on Saturday and Sunday.

Hoodwinked exceeded expectations
over the weekend opening to $16.9M from 2,394 theaters for an impressive
four-day average of $7,051. The animated pic offers a modern-day cops and
robbers twist on the story of Little Red Riding Hood and features the voices
of Anne Hathaway, Glenn Close, Jim Belushi, and Anthony Anderson. Reviews
were generally good.

There was no debate over third place which was taken by the new Queen
Latifah comedy Last Holiday. The Paramount
release bowed to $15.5M from 2,514 locations for a four-day average of
$6,169. Co-starring LL Cool J, Timothy Hutton and Alicia Witt, the PG-13
entry told the story of a woman who takes off for a lavish vacation in
Europe after being told she only has three weeks left to live. Reviews
were mixed but critics were mostly unanimous in praising Latifah's performance
for carrying the film.

According to studio research, Last Holiday
played heavily to an audience of adult women. Of those polled,
70% were female and 69% were of age 25 or older. The studio was encouraged
by the exit polls that saw a very high 91% of moviegoers categorizing the
film as "excellent" or "very good" indicating long-term
potential. Last Holiday carried a pricetag
in the mid $40M range.

Unlike most MLK holiday weekends when one major new release dominates
the charts, this year saw three films share the wealth and generate solid
debuts within striking distance of each other. As a result, this weekend
saw the lowest gross for a number one film over MLK weekend in nine years.
It was also the first time in six years that a new film failed to open
with at least $20M over four days during this particular holiday frame.

Among holdovers, Disney's juggernaut The Chronicles
of Narnia led the way with $12.8M over four days dropping a
moderate 36% when comparing the Friday-to-Sunday portion to last weekend.
The fantasy adventure continued to stay strong and lifted its cume to $264M
putting it at number 29 on the list of all-time domestic blockbusters behind
Shrek which grossed $267.7M in 2001.
Internationally, Narnia remained number
one over the weekend collecting an estimated $20.1M which sent the overseas
tally to $319M. Worldwide, the Disney megahit has now grossed a jaw-dropping
$583M.

After opening at number one last weekend, the horror entry Hostel
fell to fifth place with $11.4M over the long weekend. The three-day figure
of $9.9M dropped 49% which was normal for films of the genre. Typically,
fright flicks fall by more than half in their sophomore frames, but with
the Monday holiday, Sunday sales were stronger than normal lessening the
blow. With $36.6M chopped up in 11 days, Hostel
could be on its way to grossing about $55M. That would make the $4.5M production
another highly profitable horror film for Lions Gate.

Dropping only 27% over the three-day period was the Jim Carrey comedy
Fun with Dick and Jane which grossed
$10.3M over the long weekend. Sony has now generated a solid $94.2M making
it the highest-grossing film for the studio in nearly a year.

Finishing seventh for the weekend was King
Kong with $9.1M, off 41%, pushing the total to $204.5M. On Saturday,
in its 32nd day of release, the Peter Jackson-directed action film crossed
the $200M mark. Overseas, Universal's giant ape took in an estimated $15M
lifting its international cume to $296M. Kong
now sits at $500.5M globally.

Opening in eighth place was the period romance Tristan
& Isolde which grossed $7.6M from 1,845 theaters for a mediocre
four-day average of $4,126. The Fox film played mainly to its core audience
of young women.

Golden Globe winner Brokeback Mountain
followed with $7M from 683 theaters for a four-day average of $10,310.
The Ang Lee film expanded into 200 more locations this weekend and continued
to have the best average in the top ten. Cume reached $32.1M. Brokeback
is slowly expanding each week capitalizing off of strong reviews, good
word-of-mouth, and all the free publicity surrounding its numerous awards
and nominations. Miramax's Chicago
took a similar route three years ago slowly widening during January as
more of the country became interested in seeing it. The musical grossed
$29.4M from 557 theaters by the end of MLK weekend that year on its way
to winning six Oscars and grossing $170.7M domestically.

Rounding out the top ten was Fox's Cheaper
by the Dozen 2 with $6.8M, down 40%, putting the cume for the
Fox sequel at $74.7M.

Four December releases fell from the top ten over the weekend. Steven
Spielberg's Munich grossed $5.9M over
four days to boost its total to $33.8M for Universal. Sony's Memoirs
of a Geisha collected $5.1M and raised its sum to $47.3M. The
Jennifer Aniston comedy Rumor Has It
took in $3.2M leaving Warner Bros. with $40.1M since Christmas. Rival femme
comedy The Family Stone grossed $2.6M
bringing Fox's cume up to $57.2M.

The top ten films grossed $114.4M which was down 16% from last year
when Coach Carter opened at number
one with $29.2M; but up 7% from 2004 when Along
Came Polly debuted in the top spot with $32.5M.

Compared to projections, Hoodwinked
powered well ahead of my $10M forecast. Glory
Road and Last Holiday both
opened very close to my respective predictions of $17M and $15M. Tristan
& Isolde debuted ahead of my $5M projection.

This column is updated three times each week:
Thursday
(upcoming weekend's summary), Sunday
(post-weekend analysis with estimates), and Monday
night (actuals). Data source: Exhibitor
Relations and EDI. Opinions expressed
in this column are those solely of the author.